Hellebuyck wins 30th of season, Jets defeat Avalanche

WINNIPEG -- Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for his 30th win of the season to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Colorado Avalanche 6-1 at Bell MTS Place on Friday.
Blake Wheeler scored two goals and had one assist, Mark Scheifele had three assists, and Kyle Connor, Andrew Copp, Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets (34-15-9), who moved into a tie with the Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division.

"With the amount of ice time I get, the guys I play with, the expectation would be that you'd score a goal once in a while," Wheeler said after ending a 15-game goalless drought. "Sometimes it doesn't happen. It's a crazy game. I had 13 shots the last two games before this one, and one behind the goal line goes in. I don't lose much sleep over it."
\[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Jets highlights\]
Mikko Rantanen scored for the Avalanche (31-22-4), who remain two points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"Some of the mistakes we made tonight, we just can't have them," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "Like we win a face-off on the power play and it ends up in the back of our net. It's things like that I just didn't think we were real crisp on, but the final 40 minutes, I liked the way we competed."
Jonathan Bernier allowed four goals on 20 shots. He left after the second period because of concussion protocol. Semyon Varlamov allowed two goals on eight shots in relief.
Wheeler gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 10:09 of the first period, banking a shot off Bernier's leg from behind the goal line.

"It's nice to see a guy get a payoff he deserves," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "He's earned big point nights on his effort alone. He's had a bunch that haven't gone for him and those guys do [need to score]. He needs to score goals to keep that shooter's confidence. He doesn't change his game when he wasn't scoring. He's played so very well for a long time without putting a goal in the net and we were winning hockey games."
Connor scored his 19th of the season to make it 2-0 at 10:49 of the second period.
Copp made it 3-0 shorthanded after a 2-on-1 with Scheifele at 15:50. Scheifele lost the face-off after Copp got kicked out, but Scheifele was able to steal the puck near the Avalanche blue line to create the odd-man rush, passing to Copp who scored on a wrist shot.
"I don't know if I'd call it a full 60, but pretty close," Copp said. "The first 40 minutes especially, to come out the way we did, we weren't happy with our last two or three games. Really important to get a really solid effort under our belt and get back to the way that we're capable of playing."
Laine scored his 26th of the season, and NHL-leading 15th power-play goal, to make it 4-0 at 19:32.

Ehlers made it 5-0 with his 22nd at 5:24 of the third period. Wheeler scored his second of the game, at 7:54 on the power play, to make it 6-0.
Rantanen scored at 14:04 to bring the Avalanche within 6-1.
"We're going to play the rest of the season almost every other day," Rantanen said. "With the bad games, you've just got to get past it and learn from it tomorrow and watch some video. There's not much you can do too much better against Edmonton Sunday so it's going to be a huge game -- bounce back."

Goal of the game

Copp's shorthanded goal at 15:50 of the second period.

Save of the game

Hellebuyck's save on Colin Wilson at 17:56 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Bernier's two-pad save on Copp at 1:54 of the second period.

They said it

"Yeah, I'm sure it will help getting him back. He was the second-leading scorer in the League when he went out. Anytime you can get that help, it's going to obviously help." -- Avalanche forward Colin Wilson on Nathan MacKinnon's expected return on Sunday
"I feel better and better every shift. Obviously, tonight's a great team win. We did the right things all game, we didn't get away from it. And it showed." -- Jets forward Mark Scheifele

Need to know

Bednar didn't have an update on Bernier. … Hellebuyck is 30-8-8 this season. … Scheifele has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past three games. ... Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, who had two assists, has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his past six games.

What's next

Avalanche: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; ALT, SNW, NHL.TV)
Jets: Host the Florida Panthers on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-F, NHL.TV)